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. 2022 Nov 26;11(4):22799036221133234.
doi: 10.1177/22799036221133234. eCollection 2022 Oct.

The Great pretender: the first case of septic shock due to Capnocytophaga canimorsus in Sardinia. A Case report and review of the literature

Salvatore Sardo  1 , Claudia Pes  1 , Andrea Corona  2 , Giulia Laconi  3 , Claudia Crociani  4 , Pietro Caddori  5 , Maria Luisa Boi  5 , Gabriele Finco  1
Affiliations

The Great pretender: the first case of septic shock due to Capnocytophaga canimorsus in Sardinia. A Case report and review of the literature

Salvatore Sardo et al. J Public Health Res. .

Abstract

Capnocytophaga canimorsus (C. canimorsus) is an emerging pathogen in critical care. C. canimorsus is a Gram-negative bacillus, commonly isolated as a commensal microorganism of the oral flora of healthy dogs and cats. A 63-year-old woman came to the emergency department with fever, chills, and malaise 2 days after a minor dog bite. After admission to the medicine ward, she developed respiratory failure and livedo reticularis. In the intensive care unit (ICU), she presented full-blown septic shock with thrombocytopenia, coagulopathy, severe acute kidney injury, and liver injury. We describe the first case of septic shock with Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome related to Capnocytophaga canimorsus infection in Sardinia and its treatment in a tertiary hospital ICU. We also review recent literature on the relevance of C. canimorsus in human disease and critical illness.

Keywords: Capnocytophaga; Zoonosis; acute kidney injury; case report; ischemia; renal replacement therapy; septic shock.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Direct Gram stain of blood culture. This picture shows the Gram-negative slender rods isolated from our patient culture bottle.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Main laboratory findings during ICU stay. This picture shows six plots that illustrate serum creatinine (panel A), serum alanine aminotransferase (panel B), blood urea nitrogen (panel C), platelets count (panel D), serum creatine phosphokinase (panel E), seru m procalcitonin (panel F) on the y axis and the day of ICU stay on the x-axis. Abbreviations: ICU: Intensive Care Unit; mg: milligram; dl: deciliter; U: international units; L: liter; ng: nanograms.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Physical findings. This picture shows the purpuric skin lesions in different anatomic locations: left hand (panel A), thighs (panel B), right hand (panel C).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Bar chart of organ failures described in published case reports and series. This graph shows how many papers described each type of organ injury or failure.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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